San Diego Zoo is preparing to receive a new pair of giant pandas from China later this year, the Associated Press reported, as Beijing prepares to resume a key symbolic diplomatic gesture dubbed “panda diplomacy,” which had taken a back seat in recent years amid growing U.S.-China tensions.
File photo of giant panda Mei Sheng celebrating his birthday at the San Diego Zoo in 2005.
Citing San Diego Zoo officials, the AP reported that if all documentation and other requirements go through as planned, the pandas will arrive at the California Zoo later this summer.
The zoo said it expects to receive two pandas, one male and one female.
The last pandas that lived at the San Diego Zoo were sent back to China in 2019.
The number of pandas living in U.S. zoos has dwindled over the past few years amid growing tensions between Beijing and Washington. Both the Memphis Zoo and the National Zoo in Washington D.C. returned their pandas to China last year after their loan agreement to host the animals expired. At present, only four pandas remain in the United States, all in Zoo Atlanta, whose loan agreement is set to expire later this year.
Speaking at an event in San Francisco during his U.S. visit last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping said: “Pandas have long been envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples. We are ready to continue our cooperation with the United States on panda conservation.”